Listened to: "Lullaby Town" by Robert Crais

Listened to: Lullaby Town by Robert Crais, 1992, downloaded from Overdrive.com.

I read a review about a recent Crais novel that compared his Joe Pike character to Parker. That was a poor comparison but the novel was fairly decent.

LA detective Elvis Cole is asked by a big-time movie director to find the director's ex-wife and their son. The incredibly, and comically, self-absorbed director dumped the wife shortly after the kid was born and now is looking to reconnect. Cole quickly finds her in Connecticut running a small town bank. But, she refuses to admit her original identity and tells Cole to take a hike. The ex-wife is under the thumb of a New York mob family and being forced to launder money for them. Cole decides to help her out. The director shows up and screws things up.

All in all a pretty good story that moves along and kept my interest. Some of the characters like Pike and the mobsters were cliched. Pike always wears mirrored sunglasses, rarely speaks, and never smiles. Mobsters who talk in Italian and say "capiche?"

Since the book was written in 1992 no one uses cell phones. Cole has to hunt down phone booths. He and Pike also seem to have unlimited finances for last minute airfare, being away from paying clients, hotel stays and car rentals. They also easily travel with guns and never fear getting caught for carrying concealed. Pike brings a short barreled shotgun on the plane from CA to NY and then CT without worry. Then, after two big gunfights with plenty of dead bodies Cole and Pike get off scot-free through the assistance of an ex NYPD cop friend. Bullshit.